Yep. Good luck trying to cover those costs by shoveling snow or working a few hours weekly in the dorm cafeteria. This issue has become a huge dilemma for a lot of kids and their parents - do you encourage a kid just out of high school, who really has no idea yet what career path they want to pursue, to take out huge loans to cover 4+ years of college? (assuming the parents can't cover most of the cost). And then be saddled with a huge amount of student loan debt when they graduate? I don't think I would encourage that anymore, if I had kids that age. Paying off student loans until you are 40, 45, 50 years old is insane. Makes more sense to me to have the kid attend a community college for the first couple of years first, to get the required courses out of the way and also maybe gain enough maturity to decide what path they want to pursue (and how much debt they want to incur to follow that path).